" In light of Ignatius' 'Two Standards' and 'The Mystries Done From The Garden To The House Of Annas', at any moment we can be Judas or Peter, a Christian life can be a fine line."

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Jesuit Pleads The Fifth Amendment

A Jesuit priest who was allegedly assaulted in 2010 by a man who claims the priest molested him several decades ago is refusing to testify further in his accused attacker’s San Jose trial. The Rev. Jerold Lindner told Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge
David Cena Monday morning that, under the advice of his attorney, he is
invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and is
declining to give additional testimony. Cena allowed the change and
tossed Lindner’s previous testimony. Lindner testified last week in the trial, in which defendant William
Lynch, 44, has been charged with felony assault and elder abuse for
allegedly attacking Lindner at a Los Gatos retirement home in May 2010.

2 comments:

The fervour that characterized our beginnings, manifested in Ignatius and in his friends in the Lord, must also be apparent in our present day. Father Nadal, speaking in the name of the first Jesuits, noted that the Society is a light shining forth from Christ. It fills our beings, arouses strong desires and urges us to work for the salvation of all in a mission received from the Vicar of Christ on earth. [Introductory Allocution of Father General Peter Hans Kolvenbach to the Congregation of Procurators, Sept 17, 1999.]

Bollard also told interviewers on "60 Minutes" that during his seven years as a Jesuit, at least 12 priests made unwelcome sexual advances and invited him to cruise gay bars. At first, he refrained from reporting the advances, he said, out of fear that he would jeopardize his future with the order. When Bollard did take his complaints to THE JESUIT PROVINCIAL in California, Father JOHN PRIVETT, they were brushed off, he said. He said Privett gave him a coffee cup that bore the words "no whining" and asked him to sign a paper releasing the Jesuits from legal liability. [Pam Schaeffer, in the National Catholic Reporter, December 17, 1999]

Few are called to the life of a Jesuit, but for the man who is called, chastity only makes sense as a means to greater love, to a more authentic apostolic charity. [General Congregation 34, "Chastity in the Society of Jesus," 236]

Bart [Lynch] was four, he remembers, when Father [Jerold Lindner, S.J.] assaulted him in the course of a CFM camping trip. "Violence is the key issue, even more important than the sexual abuse. I literally feared for my life. Whispering in my ear, Father Jerry said, 'You want to live, don't you. Don't tell anyone, or I'll kill you.'" This was after Father Jerry had sodomized the four-year old. "I remember blood in my pants and Father Jerry burying them in the woods".... But before the formal charges were laid, the Jesuits were made aware of the accusations against Father Jerry made by the two Lynch brothers. In May of 1997, so Father Jerry has testified, HE MET WITH THE FATHER PROVINCIAL, JOHN PRIVETT and also with Father Sonny Manuel, another senior Jesuit. According to testimony, Manuel said it was okay for Father Jerry to continue teaching at Loyola High, but that he couldn't lead youth groups to Europe because the agency running the trips would have to be informed of the lawsuit. [Michael Meadows, "The Case of Father Jerry," Counterpunch 1999: http://www.counterpunch.org/sexabuse.html]

About Me

I am not a Jesuit, nor am I a cleric. I spent about 5 years under the spiritual direction of a Jesuit, 3 of those years in a weekly directed retreat in everyday life. The profound impact that the Society and the Excercises had upon my life, resulted in me, trying to deal with that impact in some way by sharing my view of Jesus Christ with others. My intention is to pull together Jesuitical and Catholic subjects that interest me. I was born on the feast day of St. Paul Miki, S.J.. I am the father of three small children and an infant, I am married to a great wife.